Queen of the Seas - Update No 8

Isn't my headless beauty simply gorgeous?

Thank you for all your wonderful encouragement, dear friends. You are holding that needle as much as I am.

I've also gotta tell you this: "Long live the gridding technique!" Each square represents 100 stitches, do you realise? That's a lots of counting if one stitches from the middle out. Thanks to my December 2005 trip to Hahndorf (in South Australia), where I learned all about it, my needle almost flies & I rare need to frog.

You readers are probably all bored with my one-project approach, but I'm not.
I'm delighting in a stitching success! After nearly a year of dithering about fabric choices, I am unbelievably relieved to have found something that suits my eye.

It's also glorious relief between hours of statistics & psychology study and visits to the dentist.

I'm probably going to have to repaint a room to suit it. Just kidding. Because her hair colour doesn't suit the colours in my newly finished ensuite bathroom, my sea goddess will go into the family bathroom, when it gets renovated. I know exactly what tiles I'm going to choose.

You might ask why I don't simply change the hair. Well, all mermaids have red hair, don't they? Haven't you ever seen "The Little Mermaid"? They also have lungs so need to breathe fresh air, not sea water, so where's the logic? What seems obvious to me is that merpeople have some sort of hybrid internal osmoregulation system, in which case, we humans should be doing our best to harpoon and dissect them in the name of science (I stole that last idea from someone else. Isn't that a wonderful word? LOL). Go here to check it out.

Logic, Felicity? Mermaids exist, Felicity? Give up, girl, before you really start to rave!

Maybe I will investigate a colour change, after all. Has anyone any more 'chocolatey' colour suggestions?

This week's stitching progress.

The detail is as beautiful as the overall picture. Joan Elliott has outdone herself on this design, don't you think?

Joan has published another project in the English magazine called Cross Stitch Collection (Issue 167 on sale in the UK January 16th and a bit later in the US). The 'Spring Fairy' is the first in a series of four. The design measures 12 x 16 inches and is stitched on what Joan describes as a "gorgeous" hand-dyed fabric called Fairy Footprints from Polstitches (we all know my experience with that mob!). I wouldn't be surprised if it is also featured in Joan's latest book which, ordinarily by now, I would have purchased (I didnt' quite understand if Joan was saying that it was or wasn't from the book, on her site). Unfortunately, while Amazon.com is reasonably priced, their postage to Australia is horrendous and the $$ exchange rate woeful.

Because the new project is pink, I'll probably have to buy another house to renovate or wait until one of the Royal Family produces a grand-daughter to do 'Spring Fairy' - though I can picture in my mind's eye the exact fabric (not Polstitches) I would use to stitch her ...

Ah well. There are so many variables to the stitching of this project, I'll probably give it a miss. It's a damned shame that we can't stitch everything we like, huh?

What new project has caught your eye, dear friends? Do let me know.

Meanwhile, I might mosey along to 123Stitch.com and see what's new there. Looking doesn't cost anything.

Happiness & laughter to one and all,

Felicity